Mother jailed for son's drinking

Two adults will spend 27 months in jail for hosting an underage
alcohol party, writes Daniela Deane in Charlottesville, Virginia.

RYAN KENTY, 20, and his brother Brandon, still in his second
year of high school, plan to drive their mother to jail before
heading back to her rented apartment to move the rest of her
belongings into storage.

Their mother, Elisa Kelly, and her former husband, George
Robinson, are paying the price for hosting Ryan's 16th birthday
party - more than two years in jail each. Ryan had asked his mother
to buy his friends some beer and wine, as long as they all spent
the night.

"No one left the party," said Kelly, 42, who collected car keys
that night almost five years ago to prevent anyone from
leaving.

"No one was hurt. No one drove anywhere. I really don't think I
deserve to go to jail for this long."

But a county attorney, James Camblos, who prosecuted the
parents, said it was the worst case of underage drinking he had had
to deal with in 15 years. "Not only were they serving alcohol to
15- and 16-year-olds; they misled parents who called to ask about
alcohol; and they tried to get the kids to cover it up after police
got there."

In this season of senior proms and graduation parties, the story
of the couple is a cautionary tale for parents if they plan to
serve alcohol - or look the other way.

It comes at a time of increased concern about the effects of
drinking and driving and underage binge drinking, which is on the
rise. Although 27-month sentences are rare, parents are
increasingly being held criminally responsible for underage
drinking under their roofs, even if they are unaware that it is
going on.

"In a lot of cases, the parents are the problem," said Diane
Eckert, a prevention specialist in the Safe and Drug-Free Youth
section of Fairfax County, Virginia, schools. "The majority of our
youth say they obtain their alcohol in their parents' homes."

Ms Eckert helped launch an awareness campaign in the county
called Parents Who Host Lose the Most. She said parents had to
realise that it was illegal for those under 21 to drink and against
the law for adults to provide them with alcohol.

"A lot of our parents were able to drink when they were 18, and
we're in a culture that endorses drinking as a rite of passage," Ms
Eckert said.

Kelly and Robinson, the boys' stepfather, were charged with nine
misdemeanour counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a
minor resulting from the August 2002 backyard birthday bash. Both
were originally sentenced to eight years, but the sentences were
reduced to 27 months. The case was appealed to the state Supreme
Court and then the US Supreme Court, which recently declined to
hear it.

Robinson's lawyer, Jonathan Wren, called the jail time the
"harshest sentence of its kind by a long shot".

About 30 young people were at the Robinson's remote property in
Earlysville, Virginia, when police arrived about 11pm after
receiving a call about underage drinking. The couple initially were
charged with 16 misdemeanour counts, but seven of the partygoers
had no alcohol in their systems. Of the nine who did, all were
below the legal limit for intoxication, Mr Wren said.

"I made a big mistake. I know that," Kelly, a stay-at-home
mother, said last week.

"I am so sorry." Her son Ryan was so distraught that he dropped
out of school and wants to serve her sentence for her.

Kelly said she believed the young people were going to drink
regardless. She reasoned that supplying the alcohol and keeping
them home would be safer than having them out drinking and driving.
Court records show she spent $US340 on beer and wine for the party
that night. She said she made a deal with her son that no one could
leave.

The couple pleaded guilty in a youth and family court, and Mr
Camblos recommended a 90-day sentence at the time.

Mr Camblos, who has made curbing underage drinking part of a
re-election campaign, denied any political motivation. "Politics
had nothing to do with it. I've seen too many photographs of
teenagers being killed in car wrecks because of drinking and
driving."

Mr Camblos said there was "some suggestion by Mrs Robinson that
several kids could gargle with vinegar to hide the alcohol." Kelly,
who changed her name after her divorce, denied it.

She called the punishment harsh, excessive and politically
motivated. "I'm not a hardened criminal." She has no criminal
record, nor even a parking infraction.